World Cup Brazil 2014

Is the transportation infrastructure in Brazil ready for the World Cup 2014? Will it be?

First point: Brazil is much bigger than South Africa, and the host cities of the World Cup 2014 are much more far apart than those in 2010.

In France, Japan, Korea and Germany (hosts of the most recent Cups), the main means of transportation between cities was the train. Brazil has no railway networks for transportation of passengers (most long distance railways operate cargo only); a bidding process is going on to build a bullet train between Rio and Sao Paulo, but it is uncertain whether it will ready by 2014 (estimated costs border US$ 20 billion) – update: the Government already declared that the bullet train will be ready only by 2018.

That means taht there are not and there will not be trains connecting the host cities of the World Cup 2014.

Brazilian airports are poor, compared to those in developed countries. Usually, there is only one major airport in each State (exceptions are only São Paulo, Rio and Minas Gerais), which concentrates all traffic. See notes about the airports here, here and here.

Air control, despite recent accidents (like this and this), is considered safe; however, it is uncertain whether the system will stand the major increase in air traffic expected for the World Cup.

Besides, supply of seats is limited. Just two airlines, TAM and Gol, control about 90% od all flights; there are strong restrictions for other international companies to operate in Brazil. This lack of competition caused the services of both companies to be poor; the companies rank amongst the most complained about in the Consumer Defense Agencies in Brazil. The companies never had interest in expanding the aerial network in Brazil; several of the host cities have no direct connection today (usually, a stop over is necessary in the major hubs: Sao Paulo and Brasilia).

Brazil announced heavy investments in airports, but frauds and delays are already being reported. It is dubious whether air companies will have the willing and the money to buy new aircrafts.

Brazil has an extensive network of highways. Several roads are in bad conditions, but the Governments are making efforts to improve them, either by chartering operations to private parties (NovaDutra operates the highway between Rio and Sao Paulo), or by investing large amounts of money (BR-101, which connects Salvador, Recife, Natal and Fortaleza, will be double laned next year).

So, long distance highways should be in good conditions for 2014. It remains to be seem if foreign visitors will endure the long distance drivings and the proverbial lack of education of Brazilian drivers (from 1999 to 2007, a staggering 254,000 deaths occurred in transit accidents in Brazil).

Governments are investment heavily to improve urban circulation; more highways, more metros, better urbanization. This will certainly help the residents, but won’t help visitors move around cities.

Then, there are ships. Almost all host cities have a port nearby. Cruises are growing in Brazil, and ships may be an option in 2014.

So, if the poor infrastructure in South Africa raises concerns in CBF, the situation in Brazil seems even worse.

Maracanã was built to host the most important matches of the 1950 World Cup; unfortunately, the stadium also staged Maracanazo, the winning of Uruguay against Brazil in the final match.

Below, an image of Maracanã in 1950; as shown, the Brazilians attended matches in the stadium even before it was completely ready. Original capacity of Maracanã was 166,369, and current is 114,145.

Maracanã is a name of Indigenous origin. Maraca is a rustic musical instrument (basically, small stones in empty coconut shelves, which produce sounds when shaken) used by the indigenous. Maracanã means “sounds like maraca”, which was given by the Indigenous to a small river which runs across the area, from there to the neighbourhood, and from the neighbourhood to the stadium.

The official name of Maracanã is Mário Filho, a journalist who was very vocal in supporting the  building of the stadium.

Maracanazo is just one of the reasons why Maracanã will be the stage of the the final match of the 2014 World Cup; other cities – namely Sao Paulo, Brasilia and Belo Horizonte – are disputing the right to stage the opening match, but nobody in Brazil dares to consider a place other than Maracanã for the final.

Other reasons for the uncontested supremacy of Maracanã are: gathered the biggest crowd ever for a football match (nearly 200,000 people in the final of the 1950 Cup); gathered the largest audience for an artistic show (Paul McCartney, 1991, 184,368 people – not to be confused with the largest rock concert of all times, performed by the Rolling Stones in the nearby Copacabana beach to 2,000,000 people in 2006); historical performances by Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, Madonna, Prince, the Stones; historical meetings called by Pope John Paul II; several of the most memorable matches of Brazilian football (including Pele’s 1000th goal).

Below, an image of Maracanã today. The arena is Maracanãzinho (little Maracanã), used for indoor sports. The swimming pool is Aquatic Park Julio Delamare, which used to be the most important venue for aquatic sports, but no longer  - a new complex called Maria Lenk replaced it (there are discussions about whether or not Julio Delamare should be demolished for the expansion of Maracanã).

The new Maracanã will have the capacity reduced to 90,000 people. Below, an artistic image of new Maracanã, produced by the architects hired by the government of Rio to prepare to project to be presented to FIFA.

Below, an image of the neighbourhood of new Maracanã. The stadium is situated in a populated area of Rio, and building the  infrastructure of access to and dispersion from the stadium will be a major challenge.

In the project below, catwalks (in orange) will be built linking the stadium to a large train station to be built; besides, the stretch of railway near the stadium will be roofed, and parking spaces will be built on those roofs.

Despite all challenges, it is certain that CBF, FIFA and Rio will do all they can to prepare Maracanã to justify the status of main temple of football in 2014.

There are few doubts that Maracanã will be the stage of the final match of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. São Paulo, the most powerful Brazilian State (both in economic and sports terms) is claiming to have the right to stage the opening match of the Cup (in a fierce competition with Brasilia and Belo Horizonte), but nobody dares to claim the final match from Rio and Maracanã.

Yesterday, Flamengo (the most popular team in the World, measured by number of fans) and Goias had a match; Flamengo had a chance to take the leadership of the Brazilian League 2009 (the match ended 0 x 0, Flamengo missed this chance, but is just one point behind leader Sao Paulo FC).

The match was in Maracanã, the largest stadium in Brazil, the largest football stadium in the World. The match was attended by (official numbers, lower than real numbers, as many people get in unregistered) 83,489 people.

This figure is far from the record attendance of nearly 200,000 people in the final of the 1950 World Cup; however, as security measures oblige stadium to decrease capacity, it is unlikely that any other stadium in the World will see such big crowd in the near future.

The biggest attraction of the match were not the players or the goals; it was the crowd. Flamengo is not only the biggest, but also the most passionate supporting crowd in Brazil. After several years (last time was in 1992), Flamengo has strong chances to become the Brazilian champion.

To mark the event, Flamengo’s fans created the largest human mosaic of all times. See below.

The human mosaic reads, against a background with the colors of Flamengo, the message: “A Maior Torcida do Mundo Faz a Diferença” (The Biggest Supporting Crowd in the World Makes the Difference).

Flamengo will play again in Maracanã on December 6th, against Grêmio (another ex-Brazilian and World champion), and the match may be deciding the Brazilian championship. Another big party is expected.

Metrorec, the State owned company which runs the metro of Recife, one of the host cities of the World Cup 2014, just announced that the works to build a new metro station will start in January of 2010; the new station should be finished by the end of 2010.

In Recife, the matches will be played in a complex called Cidade da Copa (City of the Cup), which will include a new stadium called Arena Capibaribe; the complex will be built in the city of São Lourenço da Mata, in the metropolitan area of Greater Recife.

The new metro station will be called Cosme e Damião (the Portuguese for brothers Saints Cosmas and Damian). The new station will be built between the already existing stations of Rodoviária (the inter State bus station) and Camaragibe. The works will be conducted at night, so as to not interfere with the daily traffic of trains and people.

The new station will be at a distance of approximately 600 meters (0.4 mi) of the entrance of the City of Cup, and about 2,5 km (1.6 mi) of the Arena Capibaribe (the dashed red line shows the border between Recife and São Lourenço).

The link between the metro stations and the stadium will be by bus. Metrorec informed that there are plans to create shuttle bus services between the arena and the three stations, Rodovária, Cosme e Damião, and Camaragibe, to try to divide the public and facilitate access and dispersion in days of matches.

This new station serves one of the poorest areas in Recife, and had been expected by local residents for a long time. Governments had a project ready, but lacked funds to build it. The Cup is starting to bring benefits to people of Recife.

Today, October 2nd 2009,  Rio de Janeiro was chosen as the host city of the Summer Olympic Games of 2016 (see movie; see report by the BBC); Rio was competing with Madrid, Tokyo and Chicago.

Rio is one the host cities of the World Cup in Brazil (almost certainly, Maracanã, Rio’s stadium, will stage the final match of the Cup) in 2014. So, Rio will be the only city to host consecutive editions of the two most important sports events in the World, the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games.

Rio was already anticipating massive investments in infrastructure, notably accommodation, telecommunications and transportation. Now, even more investments, towards sports structure, are being planned for the city.

Brazil has never won a gold medal in Olympic football. Brazilian fans now have more hope to win FIFA’s and Olympics’ titles at home.

To follow news about Olympics in Rio, check out the official site.

Morumbi is a private stadium, owned by Sao Paulo Futebol Clube, situated in the city of São Paulo (Saint Paul). Sao Paulo FC is the Brazilian team with most titles in the national league (six times, last one in 2008) and most world team championship titles (1992, 1993 and 2005).

The official name of Morumbi is Estádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo; mr. Toledo was ex-President of Sao Paulo FC, the one who purchased the land where the stadium would be built – the land was acquired in 1951, and the first match in Morumbi occurred in 1960, Sao Paulo 1 x 0 Sporting Lisboa. In 1950, the matches of World Cup Brazil in Sao Paulo were staged at the  Pacaembu stadium; Pacaembu, owned by the city of São Paulo, is still active, but won’t stage any matches in 2014.

The word Morumbi is of indigenous origin and means Colina Verde (Green Hill); Morumbi is also the name of a neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, one of the poshest (‘to live in Morumbi’ is a slang for being a rich person).

Morumbi is the largest private stadium in Brazil; currently, Maracanã (in Rio de Janeiro) and Mineirão (in Belo Horizonte), both State owned, are bigger than Morumbi. The original capacity was 120,000 attendants; in early 1990s, for security reasons, it was decreased to 85,000; in mid 1990s, further refurbishments caused an additional reduction to current 75,000 attendants. The largest attendance for a football match was in November of 1977, when Corinthians became champion after 24 years, with an audience of 146,082 people.

Morumbi will be remodeled again for the 2014 Cup. The estimated new capacity is 65,000 people. The  project presented to FIFA was signed by Ruy Othake, one of the best Brazilian (of Japanese origin) architects.

Like all stadia which are being remodeled, Morumbi would provide more security, more technology, better integration with the transportation network, more environment oriented use of resources.

Several problems, however, hang over the new project. The owner of Morumbi, Sao Paulo FC, expects some funding from State budgets to rebuild the stadium. Governor of Sao Paulo, José Serra, known for being tight to spend money, has declared that it is up to Sao Paulo FC to bring Morumbi to FIFA standards. In 2007, powerful President of CBF Ricardo Teixeira had declared that no public money would be used to build or refurbish stadia for the World Cup 2014. In August 2009, Teixeira declared that the public stadia could receive public financing, but the private stadia (Morumbi, Beira-Rio and Arena da Baixada) wouldn’t. And in September, the official Brazilian Bank of Development announced the opening of financing lines for all the stadia, public and private.

This doesn’t resolve all the problems, though. Sao Paulo FC is hesitant to take loans to expand Morumbi, because it is uncertain whether the financial return after the Cup would pay the debts. President of FIFA Joseph Blatter declared in a recent interview that Morumbi is not up to standards, and matches in Sao Paulo can be moved to Pacaembu.

Despite all problems, it is very likely that Morumbi, given the importance of São Paulo, will be the stadium of the opening match of the World Cup 2014.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the host cities of the World Cup 2014; the schedule of matches wasn’t announced yet, but it is very likely that Maracanã, the largest stadium in Rio, be chosen as the stage for the final match of the Cup.

Rio de Janeiro, or Rio (the name means River of January), is the city in Brazil most known abroad (São Paulo receives more foreign visitors than any other city in Brazil, but most visitors come for business purposes, rather than tourism).

There a few reasons to explain this fame of Rio. First off, Rio was capital of Brazil from 1763 until 1960 (before Rio, Salvador was the capital; after Rio, Brasilia became capital); over nearly two centuries, Rio was the economic, cultural, administrative and diplomatic center of Brazil, attracting most of the international visitors who came to the country.

And going back home, these visitors had a lot to say about the wonders of Rio. The city has a natural scenery which few, if any, other cities in the world can match: tepid beaches with white sand (Copacabana and Ipanema being the most famous), a tranquil bay (Guanabara Bay), a placid lagoon (Rodrigo de Freitas), rocky peaks (Corcovado and Pão de Açúcar being the most known), preserved forests (Tijuca).

And all of this is framed by tropical weather, with sun and mild temperatures all year round, and a constant breeze blowing from the sea. Very few cities in the world can afford a view as beautiful as seen below, from behind the Christ statue, at the top of Corcovado (photo by the Brazilian Travel Authority):

On top of the natural wonders, there are the  wonderful people. Of course, in Rio there is poverty, violence, pollution. The cariocas (as people from the city of Rio are called) were considered the friendliest people in the world a few years ago; and more recently the city was elected the top Gay destination in the world – not a surprise for all who visited Rio and knew the high tolerance of cariocas towards any diversity: sexual, religious, ethnic, etc.

People in Rio enjoy life. The teams in the State are not the ones with most  winnings, but the fans in Rio are the most passionate in Brazil. No other city in Brazil has beaches as lively as those in Rio. New Year Celebration in Rio is probably one of the best in the world; why would somebody wait four hours in New York, under a freezing cold, to watch a ball coming down, when they can have a party like this?

And we didn’t even start to talk about the Carnival in Rio, which is simply dubbed as the Greatest Show on Earth.

Of course, this combination of cultural heritage, nice environment and friendly people created, over the years, a touristic infrastructure which ranks among the best in Brazil: hotels, restaurants, museums, city tours, theatres, travel agencies, and anything else a visitor may need, are always at hand. A good source of information is Rio official site.

Natal is one of the host cities of the World Cup 2014 which are located in the northeast of Brazil; this entire region, in the vicinity of the Equatorial line, is marked by tropical sceneries and beautiful beaches.

Natal, in particular, has a high concentration of dunes; one of the slogans of Natal is City of Dunes; the dunes of Genipabu are the main tourist attraction of Natal. It is no wonder that the new complex to be built to host the Cup matches has been called Arena das Dunas (Arena of Dunes).

The stadium will have capacity of 45,000 people. Estimated cost of the Arena alone: between R$ 300 and R$ 400 million.  Below, an artistic night view of Arena das Dunas.

The current Natal stadium, called Machadão (State owned), will be demolished and the new arena will take its place.

The project comprehends also the building of  new Administrative Centers for the city of Natal and the State of Rio Grande do Norte (currently, there are already several State administrative buildings in the area, which will also be demolished), a shopping center, a hotel, and several residential and commercial buildings. Below, a view of the complex.

Natal is one of the most environment conscious cities in Brazil. The entire project will follow environment friendly guidelines. The lagoon shown in the image below is a reconstruction of an old lagoon which used to exist in that neighbourhood (which, by the way, is called Lagoa Nova, or New Lagoon).

Dunes and lagoons are closely associated formations: the dunes filter the rain water, which migrate downwards until finding a more solid layer deeper in the soil; if there are a large number of dunes in a small area (as it happens in Natal), water will accumulate in the space between them, hence forming lagoons.

On June 1st 2009, FIFA announced the twelve host cities of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

There was a big expectation about those host cities. These cities will benefit in several aspects from the World Cup, such as investments in infrastructure and massive international marketing.

Some of the cities knew that they would be a host. Rio de Janeiro is the best known city in Brazil (Maracanã is already defined as stage of the final match); Sao Paulo is the richest city in Brazil; Brasilia, the capital of the country (Sao Paulo and Brasilia are still fighting to host the opening match of the Cup); Salvador, Recife, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and Porto Alegre are important economic and cultural regional hubs of Brazil.

So, this makes eight cities with a guaranteed spot. It was of interest of the Brazilian Government and CBF that cities representatives of all regions in Brazil were chosen, so as to show to the world the rich variety of Brazilian culture and scenarios. The other four cities were chosen according to these criterium.

So, in the Northeast of Brazil, the region where the sun shines all year long, the cities of Natal and Fortaleza were chosen. These cities are rather small, but are popular destinations for Brazilian tourists; the well developed tourist infrastructure (hotels, airports, etc) was a big advantage of these cities.

There had to be a host in the Amazon, a region of Brazil which attracts world attention. Rio Branco was a candidate, but, too far into the jungle and with poor infrastructure, had no chances; Manaus and Belém were the stronger candidates. Belém had the advantage of being nearer the rest of Brazil and the rest of the world. Manaus won, thanks to a stronger political influence and probably because it is located deeper into the Amazon (an eco-tourism network, albeit incipient, is better developed in Manaus than in Belém).

Likewise, there should be a host in Pantanal, the Brazilian wetlands, one of the richest ecosystems in the World; Cuiaba and Campo Grande were the candidates.  Campo Grande is located right in the middle of Pantanal, and was favorite to win; however, thanks to a better project, Cuiabá was chosen.

Besides Belém and Campo Grande, other Brazilian cities were candidates to host but were not chosen: Goiânia (despite having one of the most modern stadiums in Brazil, the Serra Dourada) was too close to Brasília, and CBF wanted to spread the hosts; Florianópolis is a mid sized city in the South, with a strong European heritage, and was surprisingly not chosen (Natal took the place of Florianópolis).

So, these cities were candidates to host, but didn’t make it: Campo Grande, Goiânia, Florianópolis, Rio Branco and Belém.

On May 31st 2009, FIFA announced the 12 host cities of the World cup 2014 in Brazil.

The cities are:

1) Rio de Janeiro. Stadium: Maracana. Rio Travel Guide.

2) São Paulo. Stadium: Morumbi. Biggest Brazilian city.

3) Belo Horizonte. Beautiful Horizon.

4) Salvador. Party everyday.

5) Curitiba. Stadium: Arena da Baixada.

6) Porto Alegre. Stadium: Beira-Rio. The coldest of the host cities.

7) Brasília. The capital of Brazil.
Cuiaba. World Cup in the Pantanal.

9) Recife. World Cup by the beach.

10) Fortaleza. Stadium: Castelão. World Cup by the beach.

11) Natal. Stadium: Arena das Dunas. World Cup by the beach.

12) Manaus. World Cup in the Amazon.